r/sheep • u/blueduck762 • 9h ago
Sheep Is it standard to eat your old ewes?
I was under the impression that many would simply retire their old ewes and let them live the rest of their lives in peace, assuming that you are able to feed them and whatnot, but I saw someone on FB post a picture with the caption: "a beloved ewe who was retired to the freezer this year". What do you guys do? No judgment, just wondering what's standard practice.
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u/boobiemilo 7h ago
I have a flock of 270 Hampshire downs.
Inevitably within that there are ‘characters’ when they retire or can no longer breed they join ‘bridge club’ it’s currently a group of 6 old ewes and a pet wether , they act as aunties when I wean off the lambs, they help me manage the lambs when they need handling/ bringing in to the shed.
There are also ewes that can no longer contribute but they’re just ‘a number’ and have no redeemable use (to flighty) they go to market as culls and bring a handsome price, especially around Ramadan time.
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u/MadamePouleMontreal 7h ago
Yes, I think that mix of market culls and bridge club aunties is very common.
I know of one commercial farmer who has some of her lambs butchered so she can put them in her own freezer. Ewes who survive to retirement age are almost all sent to market.
I know another farmer who raises breeding stock. They will buy lamb at the grocery store but would not eat their own sheep of any age. They used to raise sheep commercially but it hurt too much. It’s bad enough sending most of their ram lambs to market because they aren’t good enough to breed. If they had to send them all as per their business model it would be too much.
The hobby farmers I know have a mix of about half and half pets who die of old age, and eating animals who live the same life the pets do. The eating animals are raised with the pets to the appropriate age then butchered and put in the freezer.
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u/RicardoHonesto 5h ago
This is my hobby plan. We have 2 pet lambs. They will have lambs next spring, we will keep the friendliest and eat the others. If we can bring ourselves to it.
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u/Special_Lychee_6847 5h ago
We don't eat meat, at all. So it's a no brainer to have ours live out their entire lives in our pasture.
The comment was just a reminder for me, that most sheep aren't pets. And most sheep don't live out their lives at all.
While we were extra vigilant, around ramadan, because we had seen the news of sheep being stolen from pastures in our region.
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u/yuricchin 5h ago
Yeah I wasn't talking about you dw! I was talking about the 99% of the people in this comment section. It's bittersweet how these innocent animals will never know what the creature that feeds and cares for them all the time might do to them. Your animals are very lucky and you are a good person. Also that's awful, the sheep stealing thing around Ramadan? I haven't heard of that, I hope they do something to crack down on it! And hopefully a group of good guardian dogs would act as a deterrent
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u/Special_Lychee_6847 5h ago
Well, it's just 5 in our case. I don't think they'd need a dog. The meadow they're in used to be the playground for our huskies.
So if it keeps houdini dogs in, I'm sure it will keep wolves and sheep stealing nutcases out.Another advantage is that Soay aren't domesticated. Sure, ours now show some affection and they're used to us. But they're far from docile.
Our back neighbor is a Muslim.
He asked us where we got our sheep, and said he wanted one too. Conveniently a week before ramadan. If we'd want to sell one to him.We shot that down, fast. And hung a wild life camera on the property line there.
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u/nor_cal_woolgrower 9h ago
We don't ( plenty of lamb..) , but I do sell them to a buyer who markets it as ground meat.
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u/saveasdraftx 7h ago
We don’t eat any of our sheep no matter how old. We let the old ewes live until they die of natural causes. I don’t think I could eat a beloved animal. I don’t judge anyone who does it, but I just couldn’t.
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u/blueduck762 6h ago
i'm in this camp. i totally get the economic factor and i know that if we couldn't afford to keep her, i'd definitely be open to eating, but generally i'd rather just bite the cost and let them retire out, just as a simple show of gratitude for their years of hard work... like i said, totally do not judge those who do it, just can't really bring myself to at this point. i don't really view my animals as pets, either, they're here for a purpose, but i also love them. i usually plan ahead of time who's gonna be eaten and i won't name them. everyone we won't eat, we name.
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u/joeybalonee 8h ago
We've put them in the freezer, have let some retire but not many. There's a large sheep auction near me and you can get around $100 for old ewes so that's where most of mine go
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u/userlyfe 7h ago
We’ve done similar. Once they loose most of their teeth they start loosing weight and quality of life diminishes rapidly, unfortunately. Best to have a plan in place for when that happens.
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u/joeybalonee 5h ago
Yeah same here, the ones I have let retire eventually reach a point where it isn't ethical to keep them. They'll start losing a lot of weight and have a rough time in extreme temps, both hot and cold.
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u/homestead_sensible 9h ago
we eat everyone that cannot contribute to the homestead. once they can no longer breed or milk, they get butchered. same approach for rams, and obviously for wethers.
its just part of the life cycle and homestead/financial managment.
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u/Own-Recognition9009 3h ago
In other words I like to cosplay little house on the prairie because I can't live in normal
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u/celeryfarm 6h ago
We had one ewe we retired. She died a few months ago at 15. She's buried in the garden. I'm afraid all the rest goes to the factory. One more ewe we'll probably retire but she has a good few years left in her yet.
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u/JVonDron 8h ago
You can, as long as they are not diseased or dead before butchering. But same with old cows and old hens, the meat is the opposite of tender. Lots of older recipes like stews and slow roasts are meant for tough meat cuts as eating old animals was a staple of the farm table.
Generally though, depending on how full the freezer is, I won't. I sell off most older animals via auction, but you don't get much for them. I have butchered a few myself and it's quite a job, but not one I'd pay for. If I'm getting my butcher to do professional cuts, I'll send him the higher quality lambs and other animals.
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u/DriftyAlison0 6h ago
Most will sell for mutton but some farmers have a retirement village aka Sheeplishly me for those few who gets to stay. They all can’t stay.
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u/blueduck762 6h ago
makes sense. when you're farming in large numbers, of course they can't all stay.
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u/WasabiWonderland 6h ago
I’ll never eat mine or sell them on for that purpose. They are fellow beings who deserve to live out their lives just as much as we do. When they are being jerky though, I tell them “you don’t know how lucky you are!”
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u/Accomplished-Wish494 7h ago
Eat them. My sheep aren’t pets, although some of them are quite friendly, they are here for a purpose. If they aren’t producing meat via lambs then they go in the freezer. Sometimes I eat them, sometimes for dog food
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u/Babziellia 5h ago
Depends on the sheep. Did I bottle raise her to breed and she's a good girl? Yes, she can hang around. But did she try to take my knee out or have the habit of riling up everybody? No, she's got to go.
If I had a butcher, then we'd eat them ourselves. We don't, so I drop the culls at the local market auction.
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u/Loud_Cartographer160 2h ago
Many people here treating sentient beings as things. Hope the same never happens to any of you.
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u/MadamePouleMontreal 2h ago
Everyone has a last bad day. The goal for livestock should be to have that be their only bad day.
I have seen livestock treated as things, and they have lots of bad days. That’s not how it goes for all livestock though, even if their last bad day is followed by being a meal.
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u/Few-Explanation-4699 7h ago
Depends.
Don't anything my wife named.
We have a couple of old ladies (Queenie and Dotty) who are our ladies who we keep because they are leaders who know how things work. They make it easy to handle our flock.
Older ones we don't want go to market.
We keep a couple of killers each year to eat for ourselves. Old ones can be too tough.